Tag Archives: BBC
Mercy killing woman takes own life at Dignitas
Vicki Wood, who escaped jail for trying to murder her seriously ill husband, dies at Dignitas clinic in Zurich A woman convicted of trying to kill her husband in an act of mercy more than a decade ago has taken her own life at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. Vicki Wood, 67, a toymaker and artist from Totnes, Devon, was spared jail in 1999 after admitting the attempted murder of Tim, “the love of her life”, who had irreversible dementia and later, Parkinson’s disease. She was put on probation for two years and banned from seeing her husband alone for the rest of his life. He died nine months later. Wood, who was suffering from an undisclosed debilitating illness that meant she could no longer perform the work described as her “lifeblood”, travelled to the Zurich-based Dignitas clinic with a friend last Friday. She is the latest of more than 100 Britons who have travelled to the clinic to take their own lives. In the UK assisting suicide remains a criminal offence. Last month, after pressure to clarify when those who want to help the terminally ill end their lives are likely to face prosecution, the director of public prosecutions published updated guidelines. These stated that anyone assisting suicide is unlikely to be prosecuted if compassion is the driving force of their actions. The Woods, who had been married for 21 years, became active members of a society promoting euthanasia after Mr Wood’s condition was diagnosed in 1993. They had both signed living wills declaring they did not wish to continue living if they suffered certain illnesses and asking their spouse to assist them with suicide, if one of them made that decision. , Today,in an obituary agreed by Wood, her friend Andy Christian wrote that “despite the setbacks, she led a bountiful life”, that had touched and enriched the lives of her fellow friends. “She was a seeker of new experiences, a pioneer gallery owner, an enthusiastic collector, a loving wife and an enviable godmother.” Christian said: “I remember Tim and Vicki as a happy couple. They were always full of fun and we shared serious conversations and lots of laughter.” The Woods became active campaigners on the right to end life. In a 1995 BBC documentary about euthanasia, Mr Wood, a former lecturer at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth said: “The difficult thing, I think, is for a willing helper like Vicki. It is going to be far harder for her.” Three years later, after his health had deteriorated further and he was moved to a nursing home, Wood collected her husband from the home and drove to the converted chapel they had shared in Harberton, near Totnes. There, she gave him six sleeping tablets to make him drowsy, put on his favourite Beethoven symphony, undressed him, lay down beside him on the bed and told him she loved him. As he drifted off to sleep, she attempted to smother him with a pillow, but the attempt failed after her husband began to struggle, complained he could not breathe and fell out of bed. Fearing he was injured, she called police and an ambulance, and admitted what she had done. She was later charged with attempted murder, having refused the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter, as a matter of principle. After promising the judge she would not attempt again to harm her husband, she was put on probation for two years and told she could never be alone with her husband again. Mr Justice Toulson at Exeter crown court said that the kind of dementia her husband suffered caused “hopeless disintegration of mind and body” and created a sense of “bereavement before death” for his relatives. He told Wood: “I accept without hesitation that you love him desperately and you believed what you were doing was the right thing. But neither the fact that your motive was to spare him wretchedness, nor your conviction that you were doing right means it was right.” Later, she said she did not regret what she had done because it would have freed him from the “living hell” of dementia. Wood told the Western Morning News in 2002: “I feel like I let Tim down. He went on for nine more months after that.” Her probation term continued after his death. Assisted suicide Switzerland Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Microsoft takes on iPlayer with MSN Video
Web TV service, with 1,000 hours of shows licensed from BBC Worldwide and production companies, launches on Thursday Microsoft’s MSN Video is to launch a free catch-up TV service in the UK on Thursday to try to compete with the BBC’s iPlayer – but including 30-second adverts before, during and after each programme. The iPlayer, which like the original BBC content has no ads, is one of the most popular websites in the UK, allowing people to view or listen to TV and radio programmes up to seven days after their transmission. Led by Ashley Highfield, formerly a key figure in the evolution of the BBC iPlayer, the Microsoft offering will have roughly 1,000 hours of programming – but will lack direct broadcaster deals. That means it will not be able to compete directly with the direct catch-up services offered by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Highfield is now the head of Microsoft’s UK consumer and online business. Instead, last summer Microsoft acquired licenses for 300 hours of BBC Worldwide and All3Media shows for a trial service, getting access to BBC programmes such as Mock the Week, What Not To Wear and Hotel Babylon, and All3Media shows including Peep Show, Shameless and How To Look Good Naked, and series featuring the illusionist Derren Brown. From Thursday it will also add more shows from Endemol, maker of Big Brother, as well as RDF, Shed, Digital Rights Group, Raw Cut and Content Film, bringing the total available to more than 1,000 hours. “The six-month pilot is going full commercial launch,” MSN UK executive producer Peter Bale told paidContentUK, owned by the Guardian. “The pilot has worked. We’ve had a terrific response from our advertisers.” He added that “We’re having a very high number of people sit through the ads, because there aren’t many.” The move by MSN comes amid upheavals in the online video sector, where the BBC is still waiting for approval for Project Canvas, a planned joint venture with ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five, BT and Carphone Warehouse to provide on-demand video over the internet which could be played in internet-enabled TVs, rather than just computers – the present limitation of iPlayer. BSkyB and equipment makers have voiced objections to Canvas , suggesting that there is not proven consumer demand for it, and that it might not work with planned internet-enabled TVs. The iPlayer has enjoyed spectacular success since its launch at Christmas 2007, becoming an internet phenomenon that has provided the baseline for future broadband quality enshrined in the government’s Digital Economy bill. The bill specifies a proposed minimum broadband connection for every household of 2 megabits per second – the minimum required for iPlayer viewing. Figures released last May showed that it was used to transfer 7 petabytes – 7m gigabytes – of data in a month. It has also recently added an “HD” option for higher-quality online viewing. But Highfield says that the MSN product is superior to the iPlayer. MSN’s average viewer watched for 25 minutes, he said: “That is significantly higher than ITV and Channel 4’s online TV services, which suggests we are hitting the mark with our choice of content for the service.” The MSN system offers Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to stream the video, automatically adjusting the screen quality to meet the speed of the connection. But it will be usable without Silverlight. However, without direct broadcaster deals, MSN’s video offering won’t necessarily pose a direct challenge to the likes of YouTube and SeeSaw, which have each won Channel 4 and Five shows by offering those broadcasters control of their own ad sales. Bale insisted that MSN is keen to sign such a deal. “We always talk to the broadcasters,” he said. “It’s publicly obvious that ITV and Channel 4 have made different decisions what their current video-on-demand strategy is.” Online TV Microsoft Digital media iPlayer Television industry BBC BBC Worldwide Digital video Charles Arthur Robert Andrews Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
Father of kidnapped boy back in UK
Police had asked Raja Naqqash Saeed to stay as a witness in investigation into five-year-old Sahil’s kidnapping The father of the kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed has flown back to the UK from Pakistan, according to officials. Raja Naqqash Saeed’s return was in defiance of Pakistani wishes that he remained there, according to the BBC . Sahil, five, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, was abducted on Thursday last week after robbers broke into his grandmother’s house in Jhelum. He and his father were on the last day of a two-week holiday. Pakistani officials and police have suggested that Sahil’s relatives may have been involved in the kidnapping. On Sunday Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, said “somebody who was very close to the family” must have been involved. Sahil’s family have reacted angrily to the claims. His father has not been named as a suspect but the BBC reported that Malik said police wanted him to stay in Pakistan as a witness. George Sherriff, a spokesman for the British embassy in Islamabad, said: “We can confirm that Sahil’s father has returned to the UK and we continue to give him consular assistance.” Mr Saeed said after a meeting with Malik on Sunday that he was “fully confident” his son would be found. “As far as I’m concerned I don’t know the person, who they are, where they come from,” he said. The robbers made a ransom demand of £100,000 when they snatched Sahil and it is understood the demand has since been repeated in phone calls to his father. The Pakistani authorities have contacted Interpol for help with the investigation after reports the kidnappers called from international numbers, including a number in Spain. Pakistan Saeed Shah Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
6 Music drops Bruce Dickinson
Rock show with Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson goes from 6 Music while Radio 2’s Radcliffe and Maconie cut to three nights Bruce Dickinson’s BBC 6 Music rock show is to be axed and Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s Radio 2 show cut to three nights a week in the latest changes to the two stations. Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, has presented a rock show on the digital station since it launched in 2002. It is the first 6 Music show to be axed since the BBC announced plans to close the station at the end of next year . Radcliffe and Maconie’s award-winning weeknight show , which has been running on Radio 2 since 2007, will be cut from four to three nights a week. Their Thursday night outing will be replaced with a new live music strand, In Concert, which previously aired on Radio 1. The Radcliffe and Maconie Show will switch to three nights a week from 12 April. Dickinson’s 6 Music show, which currently airs on a Friday evening, will finish at the end of April. 6 Music is one of two BBC digital stations, along with the Asian Network, which will be closed following BBC director general Mark Thompson’s strategy review last week . Radio 2 is also undergoing a transformation, having been instructed by the BBC Trust to put more speech content and social action programming in its daytime schedule and to reverse a drop among its older listeners. Breakfast show host Chris Evans has been the target of listeners’ ire since he replaced Sir Terry Wogan . The first official Rajar figures for Evans’s new slot will not be released until May. But the Radcliffe and Maconie Show and Dickinson’s 6 Music show are made by the Manchester-based independent production company Smooth Operations, which is run by John Leonard. Part of UBC Media, it also makes Radio 2’s Mike Harding Folk Show and long-running comedy Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show on BBC Radio 4. “I’m hugely disappointed but we are looking forward to other opportunities when the BBC moves [BBC Radio 5 Live] to Salford,” said Leonard. Radcliffe was named music broadcaster of the year at last year’s Sony Radio Academy Awards . • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. 6 Music Radio 2 BBC Radio industry John Plunkett guardian.co.uk
My rage at this BBC calumny
Rageh Omaar’s defence of the discredited BBC report on Band Aid beggars belief. He ignores the total collapse of standards at the World Service Rageh Omaar’s piece ” Even Band Aid is not above criticism ” is ridiculous. It is of course not about me, or Band Aid, but rather a defence of journalistic exceptionalism, and the now thoroughly discredited BBC World Service programme that “sexed up” a claim that nigh-on the entire humanitarian relief effort by all aid agencies was diverted to arms in Tigray province in 1985. He allies himself with the programme’s dubious technique of using a “star” name to attract attention to an otherwise unexceptional or dubious point of view in the hope that it will gather attention. So let me first say that far from being above criticism, should Rageh or the World Service colleague he seeks to protect have done the basic journalistic gig of doing a teensy bit of research before they write their stories by, say, doing something basic like maybe Googling my name, he would immediately be overwhelmed by a 35-year torrent of vituperation and condemnation of everything about me – from my suspiciously foreign-sounding name to my shaving and bathing habits, hairstyle (fair enough!), my partners, children, domestic life, temperament, driving habits, political views, attitudes, clothing, style, music, driving and on and on. No, Rageh, rest assured, I am definitely not above criticism – but again, please, for the sake of veracity, and again, I extend this to the wretched Martin Plaut , your fellow journalist, stop venturing palpably untrue statements dressed up as fact. And how arrogant you are, how self-important, that you should deign to lecture on the implied assumption that you, and by extension all journalists – and specifically in this case the BBC World Service – are above the criticism that you are so busily wagging your finger at me for, and which I (clearly getting above my station) have last weekend meted out to your incompetent mate and his associates at the Beeb. Get it straight, pal – you are not. Either as individuals or organisations. It’s about time a little humility was allowed into your closed self-regarding little media world. But like the bankers and the MPs these days, you lot just don’t get it, do you? As for Band Aid, well, as a trustee said to me, sickened upon seeing the shameful Times cartoon which accepted the BBC story as gospel (of course) without asking any questions: “We’ve taken it on the chin for 25 years and never said anything. Not this time.” Definitely not this time. The Band Aid Trust is reporting BBC World Service to Ofcom and the BBC board of directors, and we have requested transcripts of all interviews from the show in question from the deputy chairman of the BBC. We will also take a view on what legal action we may take both against the journalist in question and World Service in general. Criticism, no problem, Rageh. Calumny, no. Band Aid, too, Mr Omaar, has been a constant target over the years, had you but had the decency to bother checking before uttering your pathetic interpretation of press freedom as allowing any clown carte blanche to interpret reporting as an excuse for half-truth, distortion, and innuendo and unsubstantiated claims. The journalism of “making it up”. As you probably know anyway, but it just doesn’t fit into your pompous guff this time, Band Aid has been under the most intensive scrutiny since and most particularly during the mid-80s. Quite rightly, too. We have an obligation to all those who entrusted us with their money and more particularly to those in whose name it was given. That is what I and my fellow trustees have been doing for the last 26 years. Same guys, same trust. And we ain’t stopping now. Pretty weird, however, that not one, not a single one of the dozens of journalists of record and others who have travelled with me or covered Band Aid “discovered” Martin Plaut’s “story” (and story is indeed what it is). Some feel the press has a right to lie. Rageh, no such right exists. The real story of this sorry saga is the intense systemic failure of the World Service, that cherry on the cake of the BBC’s reputation. It’s a rotten old cherry these days. And I am as bereft as a jilted lover. Of all the taxes I pay, I pay only one gladly – my licence fee. I am Mr World Service. I have done ads promoting the BBC, I have written and spoken in its defence, it is indeed the BBC who started me and others on this African journey; I believe it must, at all costs, be retained very similar to what it is now, albeit cutting away the deadwood and slack. But basically: “I Want My BBC!” But this BBC story was neither about me nor Band Aid. By disingenuously posturing as “serious” reporting, it pretended the total failure and negligence of all the great humanitarian workers and their organisations in the worst famine in modern times, and how miraculously not one of them spotted that no one was getting food despite everyone supplying it! It beggars belief that anyone would take that seriously. Where were all the dead people then? If no one was getting food, why was nobody dying? That would have been one of the first questions I’d have asked. But they weren’t dying because they were getting help, and massive amounts of it. But of course no one did ask where the bodies were at the World Service. That and many, many, other unasked questions. No, this story here is of the total collapse of standards and systems at the World Service, which has a special and particular duty of care to the truth. Why? Because in hundreds – perhaps thousands – of small rooms in the many dark spots of our planet people huddle secretly and in great danger to hear the reality and the truth behind their situation. Because in deserts and jungles, I have listened to the world tell its story to me through this miraculous brave station. And to tabloid all that away of an instant? Tragic beyond measure. Where were the producers and editors and seniors? Why was Plaut allowed to go mad on his pre- and post- media interview circus around the world with bonkers wild accusations? Just to get an audience? Did he and the World Service for one second comprehend the enormous damage and danger he immediately put every humanitarian worker in? Particularly the huge, brave and brilliant Red Cross? Did he not consider, for one microsecond, the consequences of accusing them, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, that they had handed over 95% of their cash to purchase arms? It literally beggars belief at the enormity of the consequence had his lie not been nailed immediately and with as much vehemence as could be mustered. How appalling the utter and total disregard or incomprehension of the result of his actions. What if the Red Cross, now compromised in their neutrality, were ordered away from war zones, or forbidden access to the deepest dungeons, or concentration camps? What then, Rageh Omaar and Martin Plaut? What then of your smug certitudes and thin pieties? Then you could report on the blood on your own hands rather than falsely smear it over the hands of others. How dare you, Rageh Omaar, attempt to defend the awful indefensible. Just for that alone, Plaut should be fired. You people, you self-important mediators of “news”, should wise up and accept a little humility rather than attack the aid agencies and their workers for being above criticism and ask yourself, as I do, who the hell are you to lecture? Just as the Ross-Brand affair exposed the systemic weaknesses of the BBC in the area of entertainment, so this now does in the news sector of the World Service – albeit with far more drastic consequences. Where were the editors, subs and producers? As the Independent rightly asked, “Did the bells not go off” early on in this sorry tale? Where were the checks, balances, neutrality, even-handedness? They all failed at the World Service. Worse, they inconsistently and continuously contradicted themselves in their ludicrously pompous Rorke’s Drift-type face-saving insistence on “sticking by their story”. Well, they were right in the use of the word “story”. Despite the on-the record refutation of everything in Plaut’s report by very senior White House advisers, high-level UN delegates, senior British ex-ambassadors and diplomats, all the aid agencies, the leader of rest the Tigrayan relief group at the time, the prime minister of Ethiopia and rebel leader at the time, and me, and without a single shred of evidence, not one iota of evidence, they cannot bear to acknowledge the grim reality, the actual truth – that they were wrong. The BBC World Service is so far off the rails it quite literally cannot recognise or acknowledge truth when it encounters it. Martin Plaut, Andrew Whitehead and Peter Horrocks should be fired. There should be an immediate investigation into what went wrong; steps should be taken to rectify the identified faults; and the World Service must work very, very hard to re-establish its glorious trust and hard-won reputation as the world broadcaster of excellence. BBC World Service BBC Ethiopia Public service broadcasting Bob Geldof guardian.co.uk
BBC licence fee to increase by 2%
The cost of a colour TV licence is to rise to £145.50 as part of an ongoing six-year deal between the BBC and the government The cost of the annual BBC colour TV licence fee will increase by 2% to £145.50 per household from 1 April . Next month’s licence fee increase was brought into effect by an order laid before the House of Commons today, which will also see the cost of a black and white TV licence increase by £1 to £49. This is the fourth year of a six-year licence fee deal between the BBC and the government, which runs to the end of March 2013. The future of the annual licence fee increase is more uncertain than at any time in the BBC’s almost 90-year history, with both Labour and the Conservatives talking about the corporation potentially having to get by with less money. Last year the Tories took the unusual step of forcing a Commons vote on the annual licence fee increase, arguing that it should be frozen at £139.50. However, this move was defeated by 334 votes to 156 with the backing of Labour and Lib Dem MPs . The current six-year licence fee deal, negotiated in 2006, allowed for a 3% annual increase for the first three years, then two years with a 2% boost. The level of the licence fee for the final year, up to the end of March 2013, has yet to be set. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. BBC licence fee BBC Television industry Jason Deans guardian.co.uk
Bush appeals to Cameron on Ulster
Former US president urges Tory leader to persuade his unionist allies to vote for transfer of policing powers George Bush has made a direct plea to David Cameron to support the Northern Ireland peace process, amid widespread concern in the US about the Tories’ new electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists. In his most active political intervention since leaving the White House, the former US president took the rare step of calling the Conservative leader to ask him to use his influence to press his unionist partners to endorse the final stages of the 15-year search for a settlement. The intervention by Bush, in a telephone call last Friday, appeared to have failed last night when the Ulster Unionist party confirmed that it would vote against the devolution of policing and criminal justice powers to Belfast. The unanimous decision by the party executive means that the once-mighty UUP, which governed Northern Ireland until direct rule was imposed in 1972, will be the only member of the four-party power sharing executive that will vote no today. The Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin, which brokered the agreement on policing last month, will join the SDLP in voting for the deal. The decision by the UUP to oppose what London describes as the final piece in the jigsaw of the 1998 Good Friday agreement will come as a blow to Cameron and will cause alarm in the US. The Tory leader supports the devolution of policing powers to Belfast but appears to have failed to persuade his political allies in Northern Ireland to follow his lead. Amid alarm in the US at the prospect of a UUP no vote, Bush telephoned Cameron last Friday to ask him to plead with the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, to endorse the deal. While the UUP does not have enough votes to scupper the deal, political leaders in the US fear a no vote from the UUP could undermine support for the settlement within the DUP and among the wider unionist community. The Guardian understands that the White House is so concerned that the US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, persuaded Bush to intervene. The former president, who took a close interest in the peace process during his years in the White House, telephoned Cameron to ask him to use his influence to persuade Empey to vote for the deal. “There was a feeling that a conservative-to-conservative conversation was the right way to go about this,” said one source familiar with the transatlantic negotiations. “This conversation was borne out of the concern that Empey is holding out.” Another source familiar with the contact said: “This is the most active thing George W Bush has done in his post-presidency period. He has been incredibly restrained and diplomatic since leaving the White House. He has maintained radio silence.” One source familiar with thinking on Northern Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic added: “The fact that George W Bush has decided to intervene is really significant. He was interested in the peace process as president and appointed an envoy. It is a general sign of how concerned people are in the US about what David Cameron is up to.” Owen Paterson, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, confirmed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that Bush had phoned Cameron. He would not give any details of the call but said the former president had had “a very constructive and friendly conversation” with the Tory leader. A Tory source said: “It was a positive conversation. David underlined his commitment to the agreement and said we are doing all we can to support it. But he said that we cannot force Sir Reg to vote for it. George Bush thanked David and said: ‘I can see you are engaged.’” Democrats and Republicans will be bitterly disappointed with last night’s decision by the UUP. As one of the main architects of the Good Friday agreement in its former days as the Northern Ireland’s largest party, the party traditionally reflects middle-ground unionism. But Empey, who is minister for employment and learning in the executive, believes it is foolish to devolve the final set of powers while the coalition is struggling to function. A meeting between the UUP and the Sinn Féin deputy first minster, Martin McGuinness, broke up after just three minutes last night . The vote on the last act of devolution takes place later today following a debate inside the Stormont parliament on the issue. The UUP said it would be neither bullied or cajoled into changing policy and backing the devolution deal. Empey said: “We are prepared to go forward and look to the future but not under the cosh of all this blackmail and bullying.” The White House has been watching developments with care. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, yesterday pleaded with Empey in a phone call to support the deal. A group of US Congressmen wrote to Cameron last month to issue a stark warning that dissident terrorists will be “emboldened” to intensify their attacks if he fails to persuade the Tories’ partners to endorse the final stage of the peace process. Cameron has faced pressure in recent weeks over his decision to form an electoral pact with the UUP, which could provide him with crucial support in Westminster if the general election leads to a hung parliament. The pact has prompted fears in Washington that the Tory leader might abandon the even-handed approach to Northern Ireland that was adopted by John Major. Today the widow of the first Police Service of Northern Ireland officer murdered by dissident republicans appealed for an end to political bickering at Stormont. Kate Carroll, whose husband Stephen was shot dead by the Continuity IRA last March, said it was time the politicians put aside their divisions in the interest of peace. In a call to a local radio station, Mrs Carroll said: “This morning has been very, very hard for me, and I would just ask everyone in Stormont to please get on with their job.” Her call came on the first anniversary of her husband’s murder and just hours before the vote on the devolution of policing and justice powers. In a direct message to the Ulster Unionist Party, she added: “I am pleading on this day that is so important to me that it’s not worth it. Life is too short. It is heartbreaking that I have to get on this morning to please ask the politicians to get on with their job.” Northern Irish politics Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) George Bush United States Northern Ireland Conservatives David Cameron Nicholas Watt Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Babies killed in Nigeria massacre
Men wielding machetes leave up to 500 dead near Jos as Nigerian leader calls meeting with security chiefs A nappy-clad baby was among the corpses of children tangled with each other in a morgue after a massacre that left hundreds of dead in central Nigeria. Another young victim appeared to have been scalped, while others had severed hands and feet, the Associated Press reported. One female victim appeared to have been stripped below the waist but later covered by a strip of black cloth. The death toll near the city of Jos, central Nigeria, was at least 500 after an attack by men wielding machetes before dawn on Sunday, a local official said. Police said the number of dead recorded so far stood at 55. One aid worker said it was difficult to count because some bodies were charred beyond recognition. Residents of three predominantly Christian settlements near Jos said Muslim herders from surrounding hills had launched what appeared to be reprisal attacks following sectarian clashes which killed hundreds in January. Some witnesses told the BBC that villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to flee and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire. Mark Lipdo of the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian aid group, told the BBC: “We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and then the older men, who cannot run, these were the ones that were slaughtered. “The Zot village was completely wiped out: almost all the people there, except those who were able to escape by running to another place. But almost everyone who was found there was killed.” Lipdo said he could confirm 93 deaths in Dogo Nahawa village alone, adding: “These are the ones we know, but there are corpses charred beyond recognition.” He said the youngest was just three months old. Residents there also said the dead included a four-day-old baby. Gregory Yenlong, state commissioner for information in Plateau state, said: “Soldiers are patrolling and everywhere remains calm … we are estimating 500 people killed but I think it should be a little bit above that.” Acting President Goodluck Jonathan called an emergency meeting with all security service chiefs to discuss strategies to prevent clashes spreading to neighbouring states. Jos, which lies at the crossroads of Nigeria’s Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, has been under a military curfew since the outbreak of violence in January. Nigeria David Smith guardian.co.uk
Bulger mother vents fury at handling of Venables recall
Denise Fergus accuses government of ‘closing doors in her face’ as Jack Straw prepares for urgent Q&A in Commons James Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, has expressed her fury at the government’s handling of the recall of Jon Venables , one of her son’s killers, but has softened demands to know exactly why he has been put back in jail. Fergus, 42, said the news that Venables was suspected of reoffending had left her “all over the place” and called for those responsible for his supervision to be sacked. “I do believe whoever’s been protecting and looking after Venables since he’s been released, I’m calling that they should be sacked,” she told ITV’s This Morning. She accused the government of treating the issue “like a football, kicking it one to another”. “I am sick of them closing doors in my face,” she said. Jack Straw, the justice minister, has announced that he will answer urgent questions in the House of Commons today at 3.30pm. In a significant softening of her demands to know the details of why Venables had been recalled, Fergus said she would not want to prejudice any possible court proceedings against the 27-year-old. “I am prepared to wait a bit longer,” she said. “Once it’s all done and dusted, will I then get to know the full details of what they have done during the nine years [since their release]?” She said she wanted to be in the courtroom if Venables faced another trial. Her first television interview since the recall came a couple of hours after Straw, who has agreed to meet Fergus, once more defended the government’s refusal to release more information about the alleged breach of licence by Venables. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What I want to do is look at what has already been made public … to look at that and then to make a judgment about if there’s information – given that it’s already out in the newspapers – we can confirm.” Straw’s comments followed a number of reports over the weekend that purported to reveal the reasons Venables was recalled and details of his life outside prison. The Sunday Mirror said he had been returned to prison in connection with child pornography offences. Other reports said Venables had been known to drink heavily and use drugs , and had revealed his true identity to others. Straw said he intended to give Fergus “as much information as possible” when he meets her and acknowledged that any information he divulged to her would subsequently become public. Last week, Straw said Venables had been jailed in relation to “extremely serious allegations” but it was not in the public interest to reveal the specific nature of the breach. The justice secretary said today that Venables had not been charged with any offence but was under investigation. “The judgment I made, on very clear advice from others who were directly involved in the investigation, is that it [releasing more information] could be prejudicial,” Straw said. He acknowledged public frustration but said that criticism of the government would have been “much more profound” had the chances of Venables going back to court been scuppered by the release of prejudicial details of his alleged offence. Straw rejected the idea that he could have denied inaccurate reports in the media, insisting that such actions would have merely led to more theories being put forward and would not have put an end to speculation. Venables and Robert Thompson, both then aged 10, lured two-year-old James away from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in February 1993, and battered him to death. Under the terms of their release, they must adhere to a series of strict conditions, including that they never make contact with each other or return to Liverpool. At the time of the trial, Venables was viewed as the more hopeful case for rehabilitation, because he was apparently more remorseful than his co-accused. James Bulger murder Crime Jack Straw Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
Growth of the Internet from 1998 to 2008 [INFOGRAPHIC]
BBC News has a very cool interactive chart up, showing how Internet had grown from 1998 to 2008 in various parts of the world. In 1998., the only countries with significant Internet usage were USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. Of course, I remember using the Internet in Croatia every day back then, but it’s true: for most people, it was “this new thing” and it didn’t play a very important part of our everyday lives. Moving the slider below the charts forward into future, you can see how quickly Western Europe adopted the Internet, with over 31% of people being online in most European countries by 2005. In Africa, however, the numbers are dismal, even today. Check out the interactive chart over at the BBC News website . Reviews: Australia
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